Omar govt receives unexpected praise

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday received praises from an unexpected corner. A representative of Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR), Dr Syed Nazir Gilani said, the present state government was 'duly elected by its people'.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday received praises from an unexpected corner.

A representative of Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR), Dr Syed Nazir Gilani said, the present state government was 'duly elected by its people'.

Gilani, secretary general of the London based non-governmental organisation in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, criticised the separatist leadership for failing to convert the 'Hurriyat Constitution adopted on July 31, 1993 into a reliable political and diplomatic narrative'.

Gilani, a British jurist of Kashmiri origin currently in Srinagar, while speaking at a press conference lambasted the Hurriyat leaders saying that they have 'hardly encouraged a free debate or relied on independent inputs and seem to be lost in a wilderness'.

"All substantive work required to advance the interests of the people has been taken over by routine press statements and counter statements, aimed amongst themselves or targeted at the state government duly elected by the people," Gilani said.

Gilani, for his criticism in the past as well is not in the good books of separatist leadership while local people on ground are not much aware of his activities.

He said that it has been a mistake to single out, target and scapegoat the state government. "J&K government has in fact entered into an agreement (provisional) with the Government of India seeking to protect 'life', 'honour' and 'property' in Kashmir. We have failed to agitate that J&K Government has for last 56 years continued to fail the people of the state as defined in article 4 of the J&K Constitution," he said.

The activist claimed that the concept of 'self-determination' has died down, though people of Kashmir having suffered a lot'. "Yet we seem to have failed to evolve a reliable political narrative of our own," he said. "In fact we have failed on these three fronts (politics, militancy and diplomacy) and with the death of a generation remain responsible for the death of self-determination," Gilani said.

Gilani also criticized the Government of India for 'dishonouring the promise of its own Prime Minister, late Jawaharlal Nehru, that Kashmiris will be given the right of self-determination to decide their future'.